Bakin’ & Eggs
I visited Bakin’ & Eggs yesterday to use a Groupon I had purchased earlier. Plus, I’m always on the lookout for a good breakfast/brunch spot.
The atmosphere of this restaurant is very nice: clean, bright, and open. It seems to be a great place to sit and read or study during the day. I arrived around 1 p.m. on a Monday, so the place was pretty desolate. It took over ten minutes for a server to come over and take my order once I was seated, but other than that, the wait staff was really friendly and punctual.
I ordered the Cinnamon Raisin Sandwich, which had egg, cheddar cheese, and turkey sausage between two thick slices of cinnamon raisin bread. The order came out in less than 10 minutes. The bread of this sandwich was the best part: everything else was bland and tasteless, even after I covered it with maple syrup and added salt (yes, a weird combo, I know). I was starving, though, so I ate the entire thing, which could have easily been split between two people. I also had a side of cheese grits, which were running, but had plenty of cheese-flavor. Nonetheless, as a Southerner, running grits are just unacceptable.
I was stuffed, but I had to order some pastries to meet my Groupon requirement (darn… I HAD to order some sweets. 
). I got a Banana Walnut Muffin, a Chocolate Croissant, and a Chocolate Ginger Chew. All the items were good, but the Chocolate Ginger Chew was by far the best of the three. I wish I had ordered a dozen of them! Honestly, If those little cookies are always that good, I’ll make the trek out to Bakin’ & Eggs just for those things.
Overall, the three things I was most impressed with were (1) the bright atmosphere, (2) the friendly staff, and (3) the Chocolate Ginger Chews. Perhaps some of their other dishes are more flavorful, I which case, I wouldn’t mind going back and giving Bakin’ & Eggs another try.
Yelp Review: 3 Stars
I’ve made “Orange-Flavored Chicken” from an issue of Cooks’ Illustrated a few times and it is one of the best crispy Asian-style chicken stir-fry recipes I’ve ever had. The problem is that it takes a lot of prep, a lot of work, and a lot of time. Also, since you’re using chicken, you have to be extra careful about what utensil is used for what and, in a nutshell, it gets really messy and annoying. So, I decided to try the same recipe with tofu—a good source of protein without the worry of cross-contamination.
La Baguette Panaderia
It’s a Sunday afternoon and Sundays are usually my days to splurge calorie-wise: a big breakfast/brunch or a big dessert, etc. This Sunday, I was jonesin’ for some pastries and my original intent was to go into M. Henry to see what baked goods they had. Well, I guess it was too late in the day because their selection was pretty poor. So instead, I went across the street to La Baguette. I have to admit that the name of the place confused me; it says “Baguette” but they have cakes in the window… WTF? However, inside, there are rows of pastries–I’ve found the right place.
I must first say that there is absolutely NO indication of how things are supposed to work and there are NO signs describing what pastry/baked good is what (except for about 3 things). So unless you’ve been in a similar panaderia before or you grew up eating this stuff, you’ll have no clue what any of the items are or how to pull out items you want to buy. Eventually, I figured out that you are supposed to grab a metal tray and a pair of tongs that are neatly lined up at the counter and use those to collect your pastries. I chose three small cookies and three large pastries: I could identify a couple of the cookies and I know one of the pastries was a cinnamon roll with raisins, but other than that, I had no idea what I was about to consume.
I went up to the counter to pay and I was sure that everything was going to cost at least $8.00 (oh, and there are no prices listed, either), but I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that my collection was less than $4.00! And the woman behind the counter was very polite and nice to me; no really complaints about the service, except that one one helped me when I came in.
When I got home, I decided to try half of each of the three big pastries. The cinnamon roll was awesome; a lot better than the most recent one I’ve had at Flourish. The sugar-cover croissant-thing was pretty good. The last thing, which was pretty plain from the outside, was interesting; it was filled with a sweet potato mixture–like a sweet potato pie that’s been turned inside-out. I think I could have done without that one.
This place seems great for picking up some sweets for a large group breakfast or a dinner party, since it’s so cheap. I just wish I knew what was inside all the pastries beforehand so I’d be more likely to pull something that I will actually like. I’m also guessing that they do most of their business through custom cakes, which is totally cool, but I’ll never be ordering one (I hate icing).
I’ll definitely try La Baguette in the future and possibly adjust my rating accordingly, hopefully for the better.
P.S. Just had the cookies… They’re really good. Not too sweet with a really delicate texture. I may buy a bunch of these the next time I throw a dinner party!
Yelp Review: 3 Stars
Grabhorn Fellowship
Although we didn’t have much time for sightseeing (thank God I had already been to San Francisco once before; otherwise, I would have been a bit disappointed), we all learned a great deal about historic and modern-day letterpress printing and were constantly inspired by the work of well-established artists, as well as by each other. It’s hard to believe all that went on over the course of one week, but these photos provide a pretty good taste of all that occurred.
M. Henry
I tried M. Henry a few weeks ago after reading Yelp reviews on their French toast dishes. I LOVE sweets for breakfast/brunch, so I decided on the seasonal Strawberry Rhubarb French Toast and a Cappuccino. I opted to have the french toast sans the creme and asked for maple syrup instead. The waitress explained that the dish had a fruit compote, which I understood, but I didn’t realize that the compote would be so juicy that the french toast would be floating in strawberry-rhubarb juice. So… I didn’t really need the maple syrup! I was worried about the french toast being really soggy because of all the juice, but the bread was really fluffy and thick, so it was no problem sopping up all the fruity-goodness without the toast becoming a soggy mess. The toast was also topped with crunchy granola, so that added great texture to the dish. The cappuccino was huge (as American cappuccinos tend to be), but it had a good amount of espresso and a beautiful foam layer, artfully prepared with a barista’s design swirled on top.
I will definitely come back to try some other sweet dishes, and perhaps some savory ones as well. I must mention that I got to the restaurant at about 2 pm on a Sunday and didn’t have to wait for a table for one. Any earlier and I’m sure I would have had to wait outside!
Yelp Review: 4 Stars